Free Republic

Students at Morgan State University returned from their holiday break to find new metal detectors at the dorms they had to pass through to enter. The metal detectors have been placed in all on-campus dorms at Morgan. Students said they are torn on the topic. ... The school has seen shootings both around and on campus, including an on-campus shooting during homecoming weekend in October 2021, an off-campus shooting at the Marble Hall Gardens housing complex in September 2022, and a third shooting off-campus at a gas station in Northwood Commons in December 2022. ... In a statement, Morgan officials...

Airports have been the main stages for security and hygiene "theater.". Bureaucrats cling to power. It’s their institutional predisposition. So it was no surprise on Wednesday when the Department of Justice appealed the recent Federal court ruling that struck down the mask mandate imposed on mass transportation by the Centers for Disease Control. As the appeal demonstrates, governments are especially reluctant to give up emergency powers. When they do, the relinquishment is grudging and only partial. That is a big reason why big government keeps getting bigger. As economist Robert Higgs showed in his book Crisis and Leviathan, since the...

Exactly 20 years ago today, President George W. Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act into law and created the Transportation Security Administration, better known as the TSA. A response to the 9/11 attacks, the TSA was thought to be a necessary tool for confronting the new reality of terror in the skies. Two decades later, the TSA has more than 54,000 employees, a budget of $8 billion dollars, and a long track record of harassing passengers for no good reason. Far from contributing to actual safety, the TSA is a stunning example of government failure: Its absurd travel...

Jake Tapper inadvertently admits COVID security theater.. CNN host Jake Tapper inadvertently revealed the security theater that is ‘COVID-safe’ after he tried to reassure people “we took off our masks just for the photo.” Tapper posted an image of himself and his CNN staffers for a “bake off” event before tweeting, “for anyone concerned, we took off our masks just for the photo, but generally we all wear masks around the office. also, we’re all vaccinated.” ... Apparently, COVID has developed artificial intelligence and knows not to infect people when they’re doing a photo-op. “Did you get everyone’s permission in...

Today If Democratic lawmakers support defunding the police, perhaps they can start by defunding the police state established around the People’s House.In the nation’s capital, people walking through Capitol Hill on a warm pre-spring day Wednesday could find multiple signs like this: The signs show sentiment among Washingtonians against the creeping police state that sprung up in the wake of the January 6 riot at the Capitol—a police state that security authorities want to make permanent.Thankfully, Congress has just such an opportunity to weigh in on the matter this week. The “vote-a-rama” process on Congress’ latest $1.9 trillion “stimulus” bill...

It's the irony of flying. Planes are the fastest way to travel, but wait times just to get on board keep getting longer, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller. Now airports in New York and New Jersey are joining a growing chorus of complaints about the long wait times at airport security, saying TSA staffing isn't keeping up with increased passenger traffic.

Most people feel annoyed and a little exposed when they find a TSA inspection note in their luggage. But when blogger Jill Filipovic opened her suitcase after a recent flight, she got a personalized (read: invasive) message along with her notice. Filipovic, a lawyer who writes for the site Feministe, saw that one ever-so-discreet TSA inspector had written some encouraging words on the note he or she slipped into her bag. "Get your freak on girl" read the scribbled remark. And to what did Filipovic owe this bit of unexpected support? The TSA screener had apparently found Filipovic's vibrator in...

“It’s for safety, Maam. Here’s the pliers. Now cut them off.” This video shows one woman slammed to the floor for arguing with a TSA agent. Another 71 year-old man with a knee implant describes how TSA pulled down his pants. A 16 year-old girl with a prosthetic leg has her pants removed. And, then there’s this…

In 2001, after would-be "shoe bomber" Richard Reid tried to bring down an American Airlines 767 with an explosives-laden sneaker, we marveled at the resourcefulness of the terrorist mind. What would come next? The running joke, of course, was that somebody might try hiding a bomb in his or her underwear. Which was all very funny until, eight years later, it actually happened.... ...[H]ow is it that our sworn protectors manage to spend tens of billions of dollars each year, yet failed to stop an extremist saboteur whose own father had contacted officials to alert them to his son's behavior...

Last week's attempted terror attack on an airplane heading from Amsterdam to Detroit has given rise to a bunch of familiar questions. How did the explosives get past security screening? What steps could be taken to avert similar attacks? Why wasn't there an air marshal on the flight? And, predictably, government officials have rushed to institute new safety measures to close holes in the system exposed by the incident. Reviewing what happened is important, but a lot of the discussion is off-base, a reflection of the fundamentally wrong conception most people have of terrorism and how to combat it.... "Security...

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California congresswoman said she was briefly denied access to a United Airlines flight last week because her name appeared on a "no fly list" set up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat who has been a critic of the no-fly list, said her staff had booked her a one-way ticket from Boise, Idaho, to Cincinnati through Denver. But they were prevented from printing her boarding pass online and at an airport kiosk. Sanchez said she was instructed to check in with a United employee, who told her she was on...